Download KDE Software Compilation 4.6.0

Version 4.6 of the KDE Software Compilation has been released. This popular desktop environment, which consists of the Development Platform, Plasma Workspaces and Applications components, is primarily developed for Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris, but there are also versions for Windows and Mac OS X, although they are somewhat less advanced in their development. The KDE Software Compilation comes with a standard desktop, including a large number of applications, including a personal information manager, multimedia and network management programs, and games. The main improvements in version 4.6.0 are explained in the release notes.

KDE SC 4.6 release notes

KDE is delighted to announce its latest set of releases, providing major updates to the KDE Plasma workspaces, KDE Applications and KDE Platform. These releases, versioned 4.6, provide many new features in each of KDE’s three product lines. Some highlights include:

Plasma Workspaces Put You in Control

The KDE Plasma Workspaces gain from a new Activities system, making it easier to associate applications with particular activities such as work or home tasks. Revised power management exposes new features but has a simpler configuration interface. KWin, the Plasma workspace window manager, receives a new scripting and the workspaces receive visual enhancements. Plasma Netbook, optimized for mobile computing devices receives speed enhancements and becomes easier to use via a touchscreen interface.

KDE’s Dolphin Adds Faceted Browsing

Many of the KDE Application teams have also released new versions. Particular highlights include improved routing capabilities in KDE’s virtual globe, Marble, and advanced filtering and searching using file metadata in the KDE file manager, Dolphin: Faceted Browsing. The KDE Games collection receives many enhancements and the image viewer Gwenview and screenshot program KSnapshot gain the ability to instantly share images to a number of popular social networking sites.

Mobile Target Makes KDE Platform Lose Weight

The KDE Platform, on which the Plasma Workspaces and KDE Applications are built also gains new capabilities available to all KDE applications. The introduction of a “mobile build target” allows for easier deployment of applications on mobile devices. The Plasma framework gains support for writing desktop widgets in QML, the declarative Qt language, and provides new Javascript interfaces for interacting with data. Nepomuk, the technology behind metadata and semantic search in KDE applications, now provides a graphical interface to back up and restore data. UPower, UDev and UDisks can be used instead of the deprecated HAL. Bluetooth support has been improved. The Oxygen widget and style set is improved and a new Oxygen theme for GTK applications allows them to seamlessly merge into the Plasma workspaces and look just like KDE applications.

KDE Plasma Desktop, Gwenview and KRunner in 4.6.